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Why green your head? Because the first requirement of sustainability is to change how we think. We must start by abandoning our fantasies of unlimited growth. Technology can help us, but only if we are conscious of technology's limits. Great life, like great art, only flourishes within constraints.

Here's a page from the graphic novel version, illustrated by Grace Roselli. We never found a publisher, so it was not finished. Let me know if you have ideas for a publisher! And please buy the book. Lots of people say it's a great read, so I believe them!

November 15, 2014

Many, many thanks to all who took part in the Biochar School, Nov 7-11 at Swallow Valley Farm in Sonoma County, California. With 12 instructors and more than 40 students, we had a full house! The learning and sharing was a two-way affair, as we all learned from each other and made valuable connections across disciplines and regions.

I will be posting presentations and links to some of the videos we showed at the school on my other site, BackyardBiochar.net

I have posted pictures and short video clips of the Biochar School on a web album here:

October 24, 2014

This article makes the case for dedicated bioenergy crops as preferrable to crop residues for bioenergy. Perennial crops build soil carbon more easily than annual crops. Crop residue should be retained in the field to sustain soil carbon, but perennial wood and grasses can be harvested without killing the plant and disturbing soil carbon. As long as this bioenergy is grown on already degraded land, it makes sense to me.

In this article we show how residues for biomass are not the right approach in Europe to promote a biobased industry. We offer sound evidence that EU soils require perennial cropping systems to increase soil fertility and give several examples of energy crops that have been studied for many years and meeting that requirement succesfully.

September 24, 2014

We have a distinguished group of experienced biochar practitioners coming to teach at the Biochar School - Nov. 7-11. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from these experts. Register now at http://biocharschool.bpt.me

September 22, 2014

I am reading Naomi Klein's book, This Changes Everything. This is revolutionary. Here is a quote from the intro: "The bottom line is what matters here: our economic system and our planetary system are now at war. Or, more accurately, our economy is at war with many forms of life on earth, including human life. What the climate needs to avoid collapse is a contraction in humanity's use of resources; what our economic model demands to avoid collapse is unfettered expansion. Only one of these sets of rules can be changed, and it's not the laws of nature."

What you will learn from our faculty of 12 experienced biochar practitioners: • No-cost and low-cost ways to make plenty of biochar for your farm• Biochar application rates and methods for best results• How to make biologically active, nutrient balanced biochar fertilizer blends• How to analyze biochar characteristics• How to integrate biochar economically and ecologically into your farm production systems• How to design biochar devices that capture useful energy

August 22, 2014

Men’s cotton briefs can serve the needs of science when buried in a field for a few weeks. It’s a takeoff on an agronomy soil test that uses cotton swatches to measure carbon consumption by microbes.

Microbes living in soil with plenty of carbon, rich in organic matter to turn into energy, don’t have to eat the cotton. Bacteria in carbon-poor soil will eat what they can scavenge.

The “soiled underwear test” helped Clemson and North Carolina State University Extension specialists teaching a pasture ecology workshop make their points about the importance of healthy soil and how to build it from the grassroots down.

A cattle producer who understands how the interconnected web of life works can have healthier pastures that will be more resilient to drought and more productive over time.

Poore held up a pair of tidy-whiteys in tatters. Mostly it was the elastic waist and leg bands that remained. The demonstration showed the results of bacteria turning cotton into food. At the other end of the display, underwear that had been in carbon-rich soil were dirty but no worse for wear.

More than 15 cattle producers in the three-day course were impressed, though no one came forward for a closer look.

June 10, 2014

This is a modern version of the system that was used in Asia and some European cities for centuries before some English idiot invented the flush toilet. See the video in the previous post for an explanation of the whole system behind this toilet. I love the option to squat for better elimination.

There is a reason that the flush toilet is the supreme metaphor for our throwaway society. Poo and pee are the most important wastes to recycle. Plastic can sit in the landfill forever - no problem, but poo and pee need to go back on the land where our food comes from.

The 2012 WTO International Toilet Design Award in Durban: Winner is Sabine Schober from Hamburg, GermanyThe 12th Annual Congress of the World Toilet Organisation (the other WTO) will be opened by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in South Africa. This first World Toilet Summit takes place from December 4 to 6 in Durban. The prime concern of conference organizers is humane toilets for all and everywhere. An incredible 40 % of world population have no access to appropriate sanitation. However, this is to be changed with a new concept. To attain this goal, the Toilet Design Award will be awarded in cooperation of WTO with Prof. Ralf Otterpohl from Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH). With a total sum of 50,000 $, it enables the development of toilets culminating in production of prototypes. The main award for a slum-suitable toilet with excellent design will be granted to the industrial designer Sabine Schober from Hamburg during the opening ceremony of the conference by Tokyo Sexwale, current Minister of Human Settlements of South Africa. Besides its asthetic value, a characteristic of the toilet designed by Ms. Schober is that it can be used in sitting as well as in squatting manner (see photograph).